definitions of AI

  • information processing

    « The first methods for representing human activities on computers were derived from the work-rationalization methods that industrial engineers had been developing since the 1910s. Hence the phrase ‘information processing’: the idea was that computers automate a kind of factory work whose raw materials happens to be information rather than anything physical or tangible. »(Philip…

  • Large Technical System

    The conception of AI as a Large Technical System (LTS) – system artefact, system technology, infrastructural technology (Vannuccini & Prytkova 2020) “The study of AI as LTS uncovers active mechanisms of control and coordination, helps to identify types of actors and their incentives and to detect critical nodes of the system.” (Vannuccini and Prytkova, 2020,…

  • Robots, public perception of

    “[m]ost people’s conception of what a robot is appears to be largely based on the way robots are depicted in fiction” + “robots in fiction are largely presented as independent, autonomous actors that have a ‘mind of their own’, with a humanoid or anthropomorphic appearance” (Harbers, Peeters, and Neerincx 2017, 20).

  • Sociotechnical ensembles

    “An AI system consists of a computational artefact together with the human behaviour and people who make the artefact a useful and meaningful entity. […] Sociotechnical ensembles are combinations of artefacts, human behaviour, social arrangements and meaning. For any computational artefact to be used for a real-world purpose, it has to be embedded into some…